Tenrox — Tenrox Project Workforce Management

The first thing you need to know about Tenrox is its flexibility. The program
allows firms to create custom workflows for the time and billing process via
a graphical interface. No programming skills are needed to create custom workflows.
There are multiple time and expense entry screen formats already loaded in the
product and each firm has the ability to create more. This allows firms to decrease
the learning curve for time and expense entry when they first purchase the product.
As we all know, if it is not easy to use, people will not use it. This is not
the case with user-friendly Tenrox system.

Time and expenses can be entered by hours or days, depending on the size of
the engagements. During the time entry process, the user can also update estimated
time to complete values. This allows the managers to know if the client needs
to be notified of problem areas in the engagement. Users can also scan and attach
receipts to expense entries. This makes the approval of expenses much easier
for the manager.

MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS & REPORTING –
Tenrox utilizes dashboards throughout the product. These dashboards are customizable
and very feature-rich. Users have a large inventory of graphs, charts and tables
to choose from that come standard. The graphics are very impressive and the
user does not feel like they have information overload when viewing the dashboard.
If you are used to using Google as your homepage, setting up the dashboard will
be no problem for you.

Users can easily submit vacation requests through the system as well. Managers
are notified of these requests and with a simple click of a button, vacation
time is approved and updated on the staff availability report. Now management
knows that a staff person is not available during the requested vacation time.
Management can also easily review individual timesheets by drilling down to
the specific items that need to be reviewed. Additionally, management can easily
monitor when there are missing timesheets in the system. As I mentioned before,
custom workflows can be created by each firm. User notifications can be created
in these custom workflows to notify firm members that time and expenses are
ready for review or bills are ready to be delivered to the client.

Tenrox also comes with many standard report templates that you expect. But
if the report you want is not in the report templates, MS Reporting Services
makes it very easy to create and save custom reports. If you can create reports
in Microsoft Office products, you can easily create reports in Tenrox.

BILLING PROCESS –
The billing process is very simple and easy to use. Bills can be issued in multiple
currencies and projects (engagements) can be billed as fixed-fee or time and
materials. Engagements can also be set to bill based on engagement milestones
or recurring, based on time.

Since Tenrox uses MS Reporting Services, editing and creating a bill is very
simple in this product. As with the reporting features, if you can use MS Office,
you can create/edit a bill with no problem. Once a bill is completed, it can
either be emailed to the client or you can send a notification to the client
and let them review the bill online. This feature will help ensure your bill
gets paid faster and any client questions about the bill can be addressed before
it enters the accounts receivable process.

Also, as changes in the project/engagement occur, team members can easily
document the changes in the project billing by adding comments or attaching
documents/files to the project/engagement.

INTEGRATION –
Tenrox integrates with the following accounting software packages: ACCPAC, QuickBooks,
Microsoft Dynamics and SAP. In addition to the above accounting packages, Tenrox
integrates with most payroll applications. Visit their website for a complete
listing of payroll integration capabilities.

SUPPORT & HELP –
Tenrox provides a robust help section within the product. Therefore you always
have the ability to access help on every screen. Since Tenrox is a web-based
subscription system, other support features are also included. Online chat and
phone support are available, providing live technical assistance. Tenrox also
has created an online peer-to-peer collaboration network that allows Tenrox
users to share best practices and ideas about the product.

RELATIVE VALUE –
This product is best suited for larger practices and especially multi-office
firms. Tenrox has many project management tools that were not discussed in this
review that should be looked into by firms that are interested in leveraging
project management techniques from other professional service industries. Unlike
other project management products, this full-featured system is simple to use
and learn.

2009 Overall Rating: